Eating in rhythm with summer

Why seasonal produce simply tastes better

- ELEANOR CRIPPS

Late spring/summer eating might possibly be my favourite of all the seasons. The first bite of a sun-ripened tomato, juice running down your wrist from a juicy nectarine picked warm straight from the tree, the fragrant scent of fresh herbs crushed between your fingers. My mouth is watering just writing about it. You see, eating seasonally doesn’t just taste delicious – it’s nature’s way of telling us exactly what we need, right when we need it.

After months of indulging in hearty, winter food, something undeniably shifts when the warm season arrives. The days stretch long and golden, and suddenly, our bodies no longer crave comfort, but instead lighter, fresher fare: crisp cucumbers, plump raspberries, salads that sparkle with zingy dressings. It feels instinctive, as though our appetites are falling in step with the season.

And yet, when I pop to the supermarket in the middle of winter, I find strawberries and shiny cucumbers waiting on the shelf and I barely think twice about it. Most of us don’t. We can get our hands on all kinds of produce year-round, whatever we want, whenever we want it. But if you pause for a moment, you might start to realise how confusing and unnatural this is. Have we lost the rhythm of eating seasonally, and with it, much of the joy? Because here’s the truth: a hothouse tomato grown in July will never taste as extraordinary as one that’s ripened in the height of summer, heavy and fragrant on the vine, grown just as nature intended it to be.